The Instrument Before the Idol
Before the murti is consecrated, before the lamp is lit, before a single shloka is chanted, there is a clay pot filled with water and a patch of soil seeded with barley. This sequence is not accidental. Ghatasthapana, the establishing of the pot, is the ritual's first act precisely because it is the ritual's most honest one. Everything that follows in nine days will be measured against what happens in that soil.
